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By Mike Nester For The Prairie Advocate News

The Eastland School board voted last week to drop their appeal process of the countys re-assessment of Freedom Township.

The school district had protested the property tax assessment in a non-quadrennial year and felt property values in Freedom Township should have only been decreased by eight percent, instead of nearly 20 percent.

Eastland Supt. Mark Hanson said during the appeal process that If the appeal was not successful, district revenues will be reduced by approximately $275,000 above and beyond what is already being lost as a result of declining EAV and reductions in state funding.

The issue arose late last year when the county received the Illinois Dept. of Revenues (IDR) sales ratio study, which revealed a 58.48, instead of the required 33.3 for Freedom Township due to property values falling.

On Dec. 7, 2011, County Assessor Annette Gruhn held a teleconference call with IDR employees, Carroll County States Attorney Scott Brinkmeier and Eastland Attorney Tim Zollinger.

In late December the revised assessments were published in The Prairie Advocate News and individual notices were sent to tax payers. Gruhn also sent the abstracts to the IDR.

Gruhn then received a ruling from the IDR on Jan. 19 citing her office was in their legal authority based on Illinois state statue (ILCS 200 9/80).

On January 25, the state certified the median levels for Carroll County, 33.53 for county-wide and 33.91 for Freedom Township.

Two days later, the Eastland School Board filed a protest and appealed the taxes on the Freedom Township property.

Read more from the original source:
Eastland Drops Appeal of Freedom Twp. Re-assessment